Michael Gerson: The tragic success of mass incarceration

7:07 AM,
Aug. 1, 2013

Written by

MICHAEL GERSON

At a time of earnest debate on the size and role of government, relatively little attention has been paid to the Hoover Dam of American social engineering: mass incarceration.

As crime rates increased in the 1960s and '70s, the prototypical liberal response - the amelioration of the social conditions thought to generate crime - seemed ineffective and wooly-headed. "Law and order" campaigns became the norm in both parties, accompanied by policies, including mandatory minimum sentences, aimed at incapacitating the criminal class.